Welcome to Challenge League 2022!

This event will feature 9 mini-challenges, released on a monthly basis (with 3 rest months). There is no schedule for completing these challenges, as long as they are complete by the end of the event - 23:59 GMT, January 31st 2023. This means you may begin this event whenever you choose and will be awarded a badge upon completion.

Scoring Change [7th July]
Challenge League is made up of 3 waves of 3 challenges each, separated by rest months. Previously, a badge was only going to be awarded when you completed all 9 of these.
This is now being split into 3 tiers of badges:
Completion - Complete any 3 challenges from any wave.  E.g. Challenges 2, 5 and 9.
Mastery - Complete any 6 challenges from any wave. E.g. Challenges 1+3, 5+6 and 8+9.
[Bonus]  - Complete all 9 challenges. This awards a separate badge.
This means that those of you that manage the full 9 challenges will earn two badges for your efforts.

No sign-ups are necessary, simply post your submission/progress in this forum topic as you engage with the event. Please make separate posts rather than editing, as this helps me to keep track of new updates.

You can contact me on Discord, using the #challenge-league channel, or via site message if you have any queries, but please check the FAQ further down first.

Rules
Please note that this list may be updated as necessary throughout the year.

1. Alts and resets are allowed: You may feel the need to use alt accounts or reset all/parts of a game's set to be able to re-earn them during the event. This is absolutely fine, but please make this clear in your submission posts if used.
2. Prior unlocks: All challenges must be completed after they have been announced. For example, any achievements earned in February cannot be part of your submission for March's challenge. If a challenge asks you to beat a game, all progression achievements for that game must be earned after that challenge was announced.
3. Low-effort submissions: Certain games take very little effort to beat, which may be due to being extremely short, or having widely published solutions. Submissions using these will not be accepted. What qualifies as low effort is difficult to neatly define, which is why I encourage you to contact me to check beforehand. If there's a problem with a submission, I will contact you to let you know.
4. Have fun: The aim of this event is to showcase the range of what the RA community has to offer. I recommend pacing yourself to avoid burnout and hope you enjoy the event.

Challenge List

#1 February - Grand Tour
Beat a game from every platform supported by RetroAchievements.
The last supported system considered is PS2, any added after will not be needed. Only officially released games are eligible for this challenge. Please refer to the "Games" section of the navigation bar for a full list of platforms.

#2 March - BINGO!
Clear 4 lines in Bingo by matching each square with an achievement.
DM me to receive your randomised Bingo card.
See FAQ#7.

#3 April - Pocket Peaker
This is a week-long version of Peak Streak returning for Challenge League - master one game a day for 7 days in a row.
Standard Peak Streak rules apply, with the addition of Challenge League's own rules laid out above. If you have not used an alt account, submissions will be also valid as part of a continuing Streak or to begin a new one.
See FAQs#8/9.

May [Rest] - End of Wave #1

#4 June - Jack of All Trades
Beat a game from each of the 17 genre categories listed below. Each game can only be used for one category, which must be a significant part of its gameplay. Only officially released games are eligible for this challenge.
See FAQ#10.

Please do not rely entirely on the site's genre tagging as this system is in flux and may be inconsistent at times.

#5 July - Developer Underground
DM me to be assigned 3 random developers from the map. You begin from your 1st dev, pass through your 2nd and end at your 3rd.
You must beat a showcased game (map and users listed below) from each of your three devs and every dev passed on your route between them to clear this challenge.
See FAQs#11/12/13.


#6 August - Loadsa' Leaderboards
This challenge has 2 parts:
1. Submit any valid entry to Leaderboards of the Month.
2. Place in the top 50% of any 30 leaderboards. Leaderboards must have at least 10 entries to qualify.
See FAQ#14.

September [Rest] - End of Wave #2

#7 October - Achievement of the Past
Earn an achievement featured in previous years of the Achievement of the Week event for each month of the year (12 achievements total). 253 valid achievements are compiled here, grouped by month for easier browsing.
See FAQ#15.

#8 November - Uninvited Guests
Participate in The Unwanted and earn 9 Bronze tokens, 6 Silver tokens and 3 Gold tokens.
See FAQ #16.

#9 December - Breaking RANews!
Write and submit an entry for Wish This Set, Play This Set and RAdvantage Tip for RANews. Alternatively, you can instead produce a RAGuide here. Entries must be submitted to the user RANews as well as posted here.
See FAQ#17.

Guidelines


January [Rest] - End of Wave #3

Frequently Asked Questions
Please check to see if your question has been answered here before contacting me. Thank you.

1. Do I have to use a single account for the entire event?
No. You can mix and match between challenges if you prefer but this must be clearly marked when submitting.
2. Am I able to use Softcore to participate?
No. Due to the numerous advantages this provides, only Hardcore is allowed.
3. Do I need to do new achievements if a set gets a revision?
No. Any parts of a challenge completed prior to a revision will not need any additional work.
4. What if the set I want to complete only has very few progression achievements?
This will be considered on a case-by-case basis, however I would expect most of your achievements to have been earned after the relevant challenge began.
5. What if the set I want to complete is a compilation of games?
You would need to earn the progression achievements of all games included.
6. What if the set I want to complete has multiple endings/difficulties/characters?
You would need to earn the progression achievements for all characters/endings the set includes. The exceptions to this are unlockable characters as they are not part of the standard progression. Only the "standard" difficulty achievements need to be earned.
7. Can I use a screenshot/video for evidence of completing a Bingo task?
If it's unclear from the name, icon or description how an achievement relates to the task, you can include these for additional context. All tasks must have an accompanying achievement.
8. How does the Prior unlocks rule work with Pocket Peaker? Am I allowed to start working on the games before my streak starts?
All achievements for the games used in your streak must be earned during the 7 day streak period. This means that no achievements for the 7 mastered games may be earned before day 1 of your streak, but using the rest of days 1-6 to work on later games is fine.
9. Doesn't Peak Streak usually rely on low-effort/free points games?
Those kinds of games tend to be used later on in a streak when fatigue has begun to build up. The short duration of this streak, together with the option of alt accounts, can be cleared with careful planning.
10. Why isn't [Genre] included in the list for Jack of All Trades?
Genres are complex to define and attempting to include every possible variation would easily have resulted in a list of over 100 categories. Those selected are broad enough to cover most games between them, while still providing variety. The wildcard slot also allows you the flexibility to include any interesting edge-cases you may think of.
11. For Developer Underground, can I visit a station more than once?
Yes, but you will need to complete another of their showcased games on your way back through.
12. Is there a colour-blind friendly format available for the Developer Underground map?
Please DM me and I'll arrange some supporting resources to make it more accessible for you.
13. For Developer Underground, what marks a station's game as complete?
The final progression achievement, meaning games can be played in any order as long as the last achievement is earned in the order of your planned path.
14. How does the low-effort rule interact with Loadsa' Leaderboards?
For this challenge, low-effort refers specifically to the task set by leaderboard itself, rather than the game as a whole.
15. For Achievements of the Past, can I use different achievements from the same game for multiple months?
No, each game may only be used for one month.
16. For Uninvited Guests, do I need to earn my qualifying tokens for each tier in a single month?
No, they can be earned during November through to Janurary.
17. I'm not a native English speaker; will this count against me for Breaking RANews?
This challenge isn't about having perfect spelling and grammar, but showing your knowledge and enthusiasm for RA's content. If you feel you need support making yourself understood though, you can get proofreading help in #writing-requests in the RA discord server. Alternatively, you may write in a language you feel more comfortable with, but you must state that you give consent for the RANews team to translate your entries when submitting to the forum and your message to RANews.

The Challenge League 2022 spreadsheet is now available here.
At minimum, it will be updated every Friday from new forum posts. Last Updated: 2023-01-27
Verification
Only completed challenges will be verified unless I've already checked that game from another user or have been specifically asked to check a particular game/etc.
Verified entries are highlighted green. Valid entries that are incomplete are yellow, and invalid entries are in red.
I will attempt to contact anyone with an incomplete or invalid entry as soon as I can, but please contact me if you find an issue you weren't aware of.

Current Winners
Bonus
s0uth
Monomaru
Sutarion
Bendyhuman
Lonoke31
Erodion
BahamutVoid
Mastery
AuburnRDM
Cerlayjux
FlamingDoom
HolyRayne
Krepyn
MelodyAsh
Completion
Amir96lx
CuddleBugs
Doggy227
Enagonius
FBernkastelKues
freezestar
GalacticSpear
oddgoo
Tayadaoc
Whynot15
YahwehTzVaoth

Challenge League: Code Veronica

Do we have all year to complete Grand Tour or does it have to be done in February? For compilation games like Super Mario All-Stars do we have to beat all 4 games for it to count or will any one work?

Grand Tour does not have to be done in just February, it can be done all the way until the end of January 2023. I've added a compilation clause to the FAQ. You would be required to do all progression achievements which would include all the games.

Grand Tour prepared the list, feel free to use (maybe replace "beat with" with " - "?):

Good Golly, Miss Molly

I posted this in the discord but I'll put it here as well, all 4 current Odyssey 2 games are eligible for this event. 4 games with one not even mastered in Hardcore means that it's too limited a selection to otherwise curate.

Grand Tour
Mega Drive: Pocahontas (Mega Drive) beat with I'll Never See Him Again (10)

Total Progress:

Grand Tour
Intellivision: Triple Action (Intellivision) through mastery

Total Progress

Grand Tour
Nintendo DS: Umokay 64 DS (Nintendo DS) Hack beat with Master of Umokay Final Battle (1)

Total Progress:

Grand Tour

Consoles Toured: 5

Grand Tour

NES: U-four-ia: The Saga | Hebereke (NES) beat with There And Back Again .. Again (25)